The 2021 budget, which South Moravian Governor Jan Grolich called a ‘‘survival game’’, has been approved by the regional assembly. The budget is in deficit, meaning the scheduled expenditure exceeds anticipated revenue. Photo credit: Casadei Graphics / For illustrative purposes.
Czech Rep., Dec 18 (BD) – At the regional assembly meeting on December 17th, representatives of the South Moravian Region (JMK) approved the budget for next year. However, the anticipated revenue of CZK 7.357 billion is less than the scheduled expenditure of CZK 8.121 billion.
“We approved the budget of the region called the Survival Game. The region needs to be smarter, more economical and more efficient in 2021. We will see how the situation in parliament plays out. If that is at least a little reasonably, we will be able to adjust the tight budget and allocate funds for good projects,” said Governor Grolich.
Grolich identified the main priorities of the budget as the areas of social services and the environment. He also noted that the greatest complication in the budgeting process was the recently proposed tax changes.
Due to the abolition of the super gross wage, the region will have a shortfall of CZK 677 million compared to the Ministry of Finance’s September tax revenue forecast. JMK also has CZK 1.175 billion less in the 2021 budget than this year’s budget due to the recent tax changes and the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Thursday, the South Moravian Assembly approved a resolution to ensure that revenue received from shared taxes in addition to this year’s revised budget will be used to finance the acquisition of road assets and to purchase land next year.
